Five held for kindnapping, castrating youth

 A Selvaraj, TNN Apr 4, 2009, 04.01am IST

CHENNAI: When 16-year-old Vinoth, a class 9 dropout, disappeared from his house in Kovalam in 2006, his parents searched long and hard, in vain. In March 2009, he surfaced as Trisha,' a transgender. His parents Nagooran, a daily labourer, and Rani then approached two NGOs and through them the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women. Their petition was then forwarded to the police and special teams were formed.
On Friday, five persons, including three transgenders, were arrested for kidnapping Vinoth, castrating him and forcing him into sex trade. The five S Arasu alias Arasi (25) of Kovalam, S Subbu alias Subakaran of Annai Sathya Nagar in Kasimedu and transgenders D Radha alias Raja (52), S Shanthi (32) of Kellys and S Kuttima (31) of Kallarai were later remanded in judicial custody.

"When he turned up at our house on March 11, my mother was shocked to see Vinoth wearing women's clothes, lipstick and nail-polish. He did not utter a word for a whole day," Rani said in her petition.

According to the police, Vinoth, after dropping out of school, went back to his parents in Kovalam but didn't want to be a burden on them. He approached soothsayer Arasu, said to be an MSM (men who have sex with men). The latter allegedly had sex with him. Vinoth left his house on July 18, 2006.

The petition said Arasu took Vinoth to Kasimedu and left him at Subbu alias Suba's house. A day later, Vinoth was taken to transgender Radha's house near the old central prison. Radha confined him there for more than a month and forced him to wear women's clothes. "Radha promised my son a job in Pune and sold him to another transgender Angalamma. Later, my son was given to Subalakshmi who forced Vinoth into begging. His signature was taken and he was taken to a hospital in Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh where an operation' was performed to turn him into an eunuch. He was then forced into prostitution. Finally, he managed to flee and return to Chennai on March 11," said Radha.

The five accused were booked under Sections 3 (1), 4 (1), 5 (1) and 6 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and Sections 363 (A), 372, 373, 346, 326 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 120 (B) of IPC.

On Friday, while the arrested were being taken to a magistrate's court in Egmore some of their relatives and friends stage a road roko'. The anchor of a private TV channel who came to cover the incident was gheraoed by a group of lawyers and transgenders.

source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-04-04/chennai/28052701_1_transgender-kovalam-rani